'It's going to be a hell of a game': Munster aiming to add to Ulster's woe at home

Munster during a training session ahead of their trip to Ulster. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady.

A tough ask for Munster? Clearly. Clayton McMillan won’t need any reminding of their last visit to Belfast.

Then again, Ulster haven’t won a URC game at home since January, and Munster have got the better of them on three of their last six visits.

All of which proves that comfort and peril is where you choose to find it.

“It's going to be a hell of a game,” said Munster’s head coach. “I'm sure they're looking at their first few games, seeing some positives and some things they need to be better at. They're playing at home and they haven't won there [in the URC] for five games.

“And it's an interpro, we're coming up the road, so we won't be surprised by the cauldron that we're going to walk into. It's whether we're prepared to go up there and give a much better account of ourselves than we certainly did the last time.”

Last time. We really should filter through it.

Munster were dreadful that day. Bullied. The visitors were still second in the table on arrival that night but this was confirmation that a December slide was only getting worse. They conceded 22 second-half points unanswered on a bitterly cold night.

This shouldn’t be a repeat. McMillan and Richie Murphy have both pushed a lot of chips into the middle of the table, Ulster in the knowledge that they have lighter Challenge Cup duties next week and Munster unfazed by the visit of Racing 92 to Cork.

Stuart McCloskey and Nick Timoney both lug in from the off, Tom O’Toole will come off the bench. Ulster’s back row and back three look particularly dangerous and they were superb at times last week in claiming a draw away to Glasgow.

McMillan has gone for two more changes than his host, as nine new faces come in. Evan O’Connell aside, it’s an outfit that looks much more experienced than the two used to date. Tadhg Beirne gets his first run of the campaign.

There’s some subplots scattered in too. Keynan Knox will want to turn the screw on his old side but Munster’s scrum has impressed against tough opposition in Glasgow and the Bulls and a continuation of that will be a win in itself.

Jared Payne returns to Belfast where he coached for four years and hoping that the attack he is building with Mossy Lawler can cause some problems against a defence that has been opened twice already while containing a home offense that is turning some heads.

“It’s a massive challenge to win up there,” said Munster’s Jack Aungier. “I've only won there once with Connacht three or four years ago, I think. I've obviously worked with Mark Sexton in Connacht, so I know what his attack is like.

“He tries to play this free-flowing rugby, getting the ball to the edge quickly, so our defense is going to have to be on it big time. Otherwise, they can cut you open, as we've seen in their high-scoring games for the last two weeks.”